


broken brilliance

by clickingkeyboards



Series: filling in the blanks [4]
Category: High Class Homos (Webcomic)
Genre: Autism, Autistic!Percy, Brotherly Love, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:49:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18502114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: “You look worried, Perce.”Commander Percival wonders whether Prince August will still interact with him once he discovers that Percival is 'broken'. Even though he's rubbish at emotional heart-to-hearts, Lucas can't stand to see his friend upset. He gives it his best shot.“If August doesn’t accept that your brain works in different ways to his, he’ll have to answer to the years of combat training that his father provided for me.”Set between part twenty-two and part twenty-three.





	broken brilliance

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of an ongoing series where I write in missing moments from the High-Class Homos webcomic. Let me know which moments you would like me to write!

Concern was plain to see in the worry lines creasing Lucas's forehead. He didn’t find himself concerned often: the commander's behaviour was ordinary to him. Although the nuances of his personality would worry others, Lucas had become numb to them. This was true to the point that it was strange when he wasn't practising some strange habit.

This time was an exception. For half an hour, the knight had been sitting on Lucas’s bed, staring at the wall with an unreadable expression. It was hard to see his face regardless, as he had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and over his head. A cause for concern, in Lucas’s opinion.

It was his duty as a friend to question what was wrong. “You look worried, Perce,” he commented, attempting to sound casual and failing.

“I am!” Commander Percival replied, fisting his dark curls in his calloused and worn hands. His voice came out strange and raspy, as he hadn't used it for an hour. He swallowed a few times until his voice became normal again. The incessant tugging on his hair was abusing the delicate curls. He had been pulling at his hair for so long that Lucas was beginning to worry about the condition of his scalp. “Nobody has invited me to a ball before, let alone somebody that I want to impress!”

Lucas jumped off the top bunk, where he had been sat to put on his shoes, and set down next to Percy on the bed. “You don’t need to worry, Perce. Okay? August adores you, it’s plain to see on his face whenever you speak to each other. He thinks that you’re a wonderful commander and a wonderful friend.”

“He’s going to find out. He’s going to find out!” Percy burst out, jumping up and beginning to move erratically up and down the room. As Lucas expected, the knight began rubbing his hands over his tunic in a way that comforted him. Lucas had always found it odd but never questioned it. “I can’t let him find out that there’s something wrong with me, Lucas, I can’t do it! No matter how lovely he is to me on the surface, he won’t be so kindly once he finds out that I’m broken. I’m broken, Lucas. I'm broken and nothing can fix it!”

Lucas caught the pacing commander by his wrists and held him at arm's length. “Perce, listen to me. I know we don’t have many heart to hearts because both of us are rubbish at it, but this is something we need to talk about. You are not broken. Your brain works in a different way and that’s all. You process information in a different way, and you react to that information in a different way. That’s all, Perce. It doesn’t make you any less of a person and you need to understand that. I won’t stop telling you until you understand that, okay?”

Percy smiled, a small stretch of his lips. “You don’t… see me as less of a person, do you? Because these things happen? We're equals?”

“If you want me to be honest, it varies from moment to moment,” Lucas admitted. Percy cocked his head in confusion. On their picnic, Lucas had overheard August describing it to Sapphia as ‘adorable’. With a sigh, Lucas elaborated. “In our work, I see you as an older brother figure, as you’re so fantastic at your job and it’s something I want to imitate. When we’re together as friends, talking and laughing and sharing our interests, I see you as my equal. And when you need emotional support in situations such as this, I see you as a little brother. Is that okay?"

Percy processed the question at an excruciatingly slow rate. When he registered when he was being asked, he nodded as if he was underwater.

Frowning, Lucas cocked his head to mirror Percy. "Are you going into one of those episodes where you don't speak?

Shaking his head, Percy replied in a small voice. "No. I... I don't know how to respond to that. You said a lot of different things."

"You don't have to reply," he assured the younger knight. "I don't need you to respond. All you need to know is that the people around you love you for who you are. And that is whether there's something different about your brain or not. August loves you for who you are. I love you for who you are, and those things are all that should matter to you."

For several minutes, the two knights stood in silence. Quiet noises from Percival punctuated the fragile atmosphere at irregular intervals. In an attempt to calm the younger knight, Lucas moved his thumbs in soothing circles over Percy’s wrists.

“Thank you, Lucas,” he mumbled, so quiet that the older knight almost didn’t hear it. “You’re the… well, you’re one of the only friends I’ve ever had but I’m sure that I won’t find a friend that’s better than you.”

Ever bashful, Lucas blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze. “It’s what friends do, Perce!”

“Not for people like me.”

The sincerity in his voice broke Lucas’ heart. With a deep sigh, he released Percy’s wrists and stepped back, opening his stance and holding out his arms. “Can I give you a hug, Perce? I feel like you need it, after that outburst.”

Instead of an answer, he darted forward to crush Lucas in a back-breaking embrace. He buried his head into his shoulder. It meant he had to awkwardly stoop but it made him feel safer, so he didn’t mind. "I'm not hurting your chest, am I?" he asked with worry in his voice.

"No, don't stress yourself about it,” he reassured him. He was rocking side to side as if comforting a small child. “I’ve been binding my chest for years, Perce. One super strong hug from my overenthusiastic puppy dog of a best friend isn’t going to do anything.”

Percy wheezed with laughter. “I’m not a puppy!”

“Yes, you are,” he disagreed as Percy stepped back from the embrace. “Come to the ball when you're ready, alright? And, if you aren't ready to come at all, let one of the other knights know and send them to fetch me. I'll come and keep you company."

He shook his head vigorously, curls bouncing about. "No, I'll come when I'm ready! I would like to see August and what he has put together."

Lucas raised his eyebrows. “Oooh la-la, loverboy!” he teased.

Percy thumped him with a pillow. “Don't get too drunk! I’d like you to be half awake tomorrow for training.”

"Oh, fuck you!" Lucas said, a sheepish grin decorating his features as he made for the door.

With one foot out of the door and a hand on the doorframe, he looked back over one shoulder, a reassuring smile on his face. “You have to remember that I love you, alright? You’re my best friend and I won’t stand to see you hurt. If August doesn’t accept that your brain works in different ways to his, he’ll have to answer to the years of combat training that his father provided for me.”

“That would be - oh, August taught me the word! - ironic!” Percival blurted, his smile bright.

Lucas frowned. “What does that mean?”

Closing his eyes as if reading words printed on the inside of his eyelids, he said, “It means something that happens in a way opposite to what you think, and it causes amusement because it happened like that.”

“That would mean that it’s ironic that you became a knight because you can’t read, and through being a knight you’ve met a hot guy who is teaching you how to read.”

Flustered, Percy said, “August is not..”

Lucas laughed. “If you say so. You’re head over heels and we both know it.”

Percy folded his arms. “I dislike you right now.” Before the other knight could speak against, he raised a finger and announced, “We have used up all our allotted serious talk for this month so from here on out, I’m going to be sarcastic.”

This sent Lucas into stitches. “Percival!” he gasped, grinning and brushing his pastel blue hair back from his face in a hurry.

The commander grinned impishly.

“I’ll see you at the ball?” he said in a questioning tone.

“Doubt it,” Percival replied, his sly smile still prominent on his features. “I’m going to be dancing with the prince tonight, just you wait and see!”


End file.
